


Five Times Tony Totally Misses the Obvious

by chatona



Category: NCIS
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-12
Updated: 2012-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-29 09:56:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/318645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatona/pseuds/chatona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>and one time he gets it</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Tony Totally Misses the Obvious

**Five Times Tony Totally Misses The Obvious (And One Time He Gets It)**

 _One._

Tony puts his toothbrush back into his drawer, alongside the towel he used to scrub his face with, the deodorant spray and the toothpaste. He's wearing a different shirt than he was wearing yesterday, it's six thirty and not even Gibbs is at work yet.

Tony doesn't fool himself into thinking that Gibbs doesn't know that he works strange hours sometimes, frequently doesn't go back to his apartment. Last night, he went to a bar, watched the game there and had a steak and then he came back here and worked the entire night. He does that, ever so often, and he hopes none of his co-workers will notice.

So he goes out, whistling to himself, and gets an extra-large coffee with extra sugar and extra cream for himself, and then he gets Gibbs one as well (extra large and extra deadly).

By the time he gets back, Gibbs is sitting behind his desk, reading glasses perched low on his nose. He gives Tony an absent-minded grunt as a greeting and then a “thanks” when Tony puts down the coffee on his desk, and then looks up. Gibbs catches Tony's gaze and holds it. Tony can't quite make out the emotion in Gibbs' eyes, something warm and intense and a little sad.

“My door is always unlocked,” Gibbs says, without any explanation. Tony's gotten quite good at Gibbs-speak; he figures it probably means “if your apartment is uninhabitable again for whatever reason, I have a bed for you”.

Tony shrugs. “I know that, boss,” he replies and goes to work.

 

 _Two._

His head hurts and his vision is unclear, everything swimming in and out of focus. It makes him feel sick, but he doesn't seem to have the energy to throw up. Through a haze, he hears Gibbs' voice. “Damn it, DiNozzo, what do you think you were doing?”

“Boss?” His own voice sounds scratchy and feels raw. His throat hurts, too.

“I'm here, DiNozzo.” Gibbs' voice seems to soften. “Right here, Tony. Damn it, just hold on. okay? Hold on.”

Gibbs' hands are on his face, thumb on his cheek, or maybe Tony's imagining that. He probably _is_ imagining it, he thinks, and then he drifts off into unconsciousness again.

 

 _Three._

“You will not die,” Gibbs tells him, twice, and when he pushes the phone into Tony's weak grip, his touch is warm and gentle.

 

 _Four._

There's coffee on his desk, still hot, and a chocolate bar lying next to it. The chocolate bars didn't appear on his desk very often, only during long cases, on days when Tony felt down and did his best to cover up. Kate used to comment, on those days, that the chocolate would just make him more hyper than he already was, but Tony felt he really needed the sugar on those days.

Gibbs took care of his people, Tony knew, and if Gibbs had gotten a little too good at reading Tony's needs, that was disconcerting, but the chocolate and the coffee were nice.

 

 _Five._

Gibbs slaps Tony over the back of the head.

 

 _And One Time He Gets It_

Gibbs is working on his boat, back to Tony, his movements smooth and rhythmical. Tony sits down by the stairs, takes a piece of pizza and a sip of his beer. There's a new TV hanging on the wall opposite the stairs, right in Tony's view. It's a flatscreen.

“You got a new TV,” Tony says, dumbfounded.

Gibbs grunts.

Tony notices there's a DVD player, too, and some of the movies he has tried to convince Gibbs to watch over the years. He tilts his head, frowning a little, trying to understand.

“Why did you get a new TV?” he asks, still in the same voice. It sounds stupid even to his own ears.

Gibbs straightens up, and turns towards Tony. “Would you like to learn how to work on the boat?” The question doesn't provide an answer to Tony's, and his first reaction is to say “what, no” because he thinks he might just break the boat. He'd do something wrong for sure.

Then he catches the look in Gibbs' eyes and he gets it.

“Oh,” he says, and, “Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that.”


End file.
